Pakistan: Bangladesh Is Right In Demanding An Apology

An article from The Express Tribune forwarded
by the Asian Human Rights
Commission

Pakistan: Bangladesh Is Right
In Demanding An Apology From Pakistan

Pervez Hoodbhoy

A bunch of university
students in Islamabad, with whom I was informally conversing
yesterday, hadn't heard of either. Of course, they knew of
Tahrir Square and Afzal Guru's recent execution. But they
showed little interest upon learning that Shahbag Square was
in Dhaka and that, as we spoke, the city was seething with
protest. Between 100,000 to 500,000 Bengalis had converged
to Shahbag to sing patriotic songs, recite poems and read
out episodes from Bangladesh's history of the Liberation
War. At the centre of the protesters' demands was Abdul
Kader Mullah's fate.

On February 5, the Bangladesh
International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) found Mullah guilty in
five out of the six charges against him. Known as Mirpurer
Koshai (Butcher of Mirpur) because of his atrocities against
citizens in the Mirpur area of Dhaka, he was charged with
beheading a poet, raping an 11-year-old girl and murdering
344 people. The ICT sentenced Mullah, presently assistant secretary general of the
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, to life in prison. For the
protesters in Shahbag Square, this isn't enough — they
want Mullah hanged. On the other side, the Jamaat-e-Islami
protested violently and also took out demonstrations. But
its efforts to influence global opinion foundered in spite
of a well-funded effort.

Curiously enough, Mullah's case
has been taken up by the government of Turkey. President
Abdullah Gül sent a letter last month to the president of
Bangladesh requesting clemency for all those accused of mass
murder. Fortunately, Turkey's president appears to be an
exception and much of the world has shown little regard for
genocidal killers.

Pakistan has shown zero interest in
Mullah's fate. The media is silent and the Foreign Office
has not issued any statement. This is quite ironical
because, like the forgotten Biharis of East Pakistan,
Mullah has been abandoned although he subscribed to the
Two-Nation Theory and had fought alongside the Pakistan Army
for a united Pakistan. In 1971, local political and
religious militia groups like Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams
assisted Pakistani soldiers in the mass killings of
Bengalis, often singling out Hindus. Many militia members
were also members of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

The disinterest
in Shahbag Square epitomises the enormous gulf that
separates Bangladesh from Pakistan. The period of our
national history — where 54 per cent of the country's
population chose to secede from the other 46 per cent —
remains supremely inconsequential to Pakistanis. For them,
Bangladesh could well be on the other side of the moon. The
question is: why?

Searching for an answer, I browsed
throughtextbooks currently used in Pakistani
schools. The class-five Social Studies text (English),
taught to 12-year olds, begins with citing the differences
between Hindus and Muslims (e.g. Hindus burn the wife after
her husband dies but Muslims don't), the need to be aware of
the hidden enemies of Pakistan (religious extremists are not
mentioned) and the importance of unceasing jihad. It devotes
a total of three sentences to a united Pakistan, the last of
which reads: "With the help of India, East Pakistan
separated."

The class-eight Pakistan Studies textbook
(English) is still briefer and simply states that, "Some
leaders of former East Pakistan with the active help of
India managed to break away from Pakistan and established
Bangladesh." The class nine-10 (Urdu) book — by far the
most detailed — devotes nearly three pages to explaining
the disintegration. The listed subtitles include: a)
Incompetent government of Yahya Khan; b) Hindu domination of
trade; c) Nefarious role of Hindu teachers; d) Language
problems; e) Indian interference; f) The elections of
1970.

Having seen only grotesque caricatures of history,
it is impossible for Pakistan's youth to understand 1971.
But how can I blame them? Those of us who grew up in the
1950s and 1960s knew in our hearts that East and West
Pakistan were one country but not one nation. Young people
today cannot imagine the rampant anti-Bengali racism among
West Pakistanis then. With great shame, I must admit that,
as a thoughtless young boy, I, too, felt embarrassed about
small and dark people being among my compatriots. Victims of
a delusion, we thought that good Muslims and Pakistanis were
tall, fair and spoke chaste Urdu. Some schoolmates would
laugh at the strange sounding Bengali news broadcasts from
Radio Pakistan.

Even as they agonise about 'losing' the
East, many Pakistanis still believe that 1971 was a military
defeat rather than a political one. Dr AQ Khan, who met with
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan this week, writes
that nuclear bombs could have kept Pakistan intact: "If we
had had nuclear capability before 1971, we would not have
lost half of our country — present-day Bangladesh —
after disgraceful defeat."

But would this have really
worked? Even with a bomb, the Pakistan Army would be surrounded by a
hostile population and peppered by the Mukti Bahini's
guerilla attacks. Though armed with tanks and aircraft, the
weakness of West Pakistan's position was irreversible. With
a hostile India in between, the logistics of supplying
90,000 troops from a thousand miles away were simply
horrendous. India had, of course, refused permission for
over-flights, leaving only the sea route. A long war would
have left Pakistan bankrupt. More importantly, all occupying
forces — including the Indian Army in Kashmir and the
Americans in Afghanistan — typically exact
disproportionate retribution when attacked. The atrocities
of occupiers heighten local resentment and add hugely to the
insurgency.

I am still trying to understand our good
doctor's suggestion. Could the bomb have been used on the
raging pro-independence mobs in Dhaka? Or used to incinerate
Calcutta and Delhi, and have the favour duly returned to
Lahore and Karachi? Threatening India with a nuclear attack
may have kept it out of the war, but then East Pakistanis
would have been massacred wholesale.

History cannot be
undone but it's time to move on. Bangladesh is right in
demanding an apology from Pakistan — one which we have so
far refused to give. Let us do so now and start a new
chapter in the relationship between our two states. If we
have the honesty and courage to take this step, as a bonus,
the problem of Balochistan might become a tad easier to
understand — and perhaps, solve.

The writer retired
as professor of physics from Quaid-e-Azam University,
Islamabad.

# # #

About AHRC: The Asian
Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental
organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents
violations and advocates for justice and institutional
reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these
rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in
1984.

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